Data & Statistics - Interpretation rather than Production

The reason I'm writing this is because I finally got the time (rather I'm too tired to do anything else but read) to read the Global Competitiveness Report & The Global Gender Gap Report; both released by the World Economic Forum. Luckily I did this now because it gave me a minuscule idea for something I can do with my life in the future!

Here are the reports if you're interested : http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm and http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm

But my post is not about the reports themselves but about data and statistics all over the world. In my job I do a bit of data analysis and information gathering and even though my knowledge is rudimentary I know one thing - the primary purpose of data collection should be to educate the layman about possible problems and offering solutions in a logical way backed by numbers.

But when I see data/information in many reports: even the WEF and the population census in India they only offer the numbers. No one is talking solutions or what to do. At most they come up with fancy garphs and divide data regionally. Of course they also have rankings.

So to come to the point - my idea. One of my former team mates and now closest friends who is Chinese once pointed out to me that the one thing India could do with is a central data/information gathering mechanism. We need it really. We have scattered agencies and the only one that works with a semblance of normalcy is the population census. We simply don't have data in the world's largest democracy! Its quite shocking. this is also becasue structures are quite decentralized and states left to themselves will not take on the responsibility. This has to be a centre driven project.

So I figure if I can work out an organisation can do this for India and also maybe the world. Think about it - we have the fancy UN reports and then country reports but is there anyone looking at various national reports and tying them together to see what are the opportunities to be taken advantage of? If there is I would like to find them and work for them! If not there is always space for global data consulting - if I can call it that.

Lets see. This is another option for the future. and its good because I can start in India. Also my previous experience will be useful here.

And if it doest work I can settle down being the good Indian Wife to a Rich Husband. And then make charts and excel sheets on expenses of the house and the number of diapers used by my kids per month and quarter. (I'm really just joking on this one - I have the greatest respect for the Indian housewife - a post which will come later!)